This invention relates to the cooling of self-baking anodes in Hall-Heroult electrolytic cells for the production of aluminum. These self-baking anodes, or Soderberg electrodes as they are called, consist of a steel mantle which is open at both ends and which is filled with a mixture normally consisting of petroleum coke and pitch. As the anode mix is consumed during electrolysis more mix is added from above. The heat developed is used to bake the anode mix as it descends in the mantle. In the upper part of the mantle there is a layer of hot, liquid mix which gives off large quantities of noxious volatile hydrocarbons, especially when the current-carrying anode bolts are withdrawn. Efficient cooling of the upper layer of the liquid mix permits control of the coking process in the self-baking anode. This results in a thicker and cooler layer of mix at the top of the anode. At the same time the tendency of the pitch and coke to segregate is reduced so that the anode mix becomes more homogeneous. Evaporation of the hydrocarbons is thus reduced, resulting at the same time in improved quality of the anode. The use of cooling air, submerged cooling coils and partly submerged, vertical cooling rods, where the non-submerged part of the rods is air-cooled by natural convection, have already been proposed for the cooling of the surface of anodes. However, prior known devices of the latter type are hardly practical in use. It has been considered essential to place the cooling rods in the vicinity of the current-carryihg bolts and, as far as possible, in such a way that they cover the entire surface of the anode. However, the cooling device can easily obstruct the bolts and the bolt-removing equipment, and it has been necessary to make it solid and strong enough to withstand the impact and compressive stresses which occur. The individual cooling rods are usually permanently fixed in transverse beams mounted above the anode mantle, and the equipment has taken up so much space and been so dominating that operations and maintenance of the cells have been hampered.